Wedge Air Jam and ESF Tag Team go off at Tolcarne..

Wedge Air Jam lives up to reputation, and ESF Tag Team Championships Goes off!

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 31 July, 2009 : - - Tolcarne beach, Cornwall, lived up to its reputation as one of the UKs premier bodyboarding venues on Sunday, with 20 of the best UK-based bodyboarders busting out big aerial moves in pumping five-foot conditions.

The Wedge Air Jam competition (co-sponsored by Corona, The Kahuna restaurant and Overhead Surf); and the English Surfing Federation Tag Team Championships (sponsored by Rob Barbers Bodyboarding School and ThreeSixty Magazine) served up a feast of bodyboarding excellence.

The competitions ran back-to-back to exploit the best conditions, and more than 125 spectators braved the incessant summer rain to watch the spectacle unfold.

The Tag Team event is held each year to raise funds for the English team, who will be competing in the European Surfing Championships in Jersey in September. Five teams battled it out, with reigning champions Rob Barbers Bodyboarding School (Aidan Salmon, Bjorn Storey, Joe Franklin and Rob Barber) taking the title again. Joe Franklin scored the highest single wave score after an excellent combination of spins and an aerial roll. Team Plymouth placed second and Discipul third.

The surf picked up with the incoming tide and by the start of the Wedge Air Jam the sets were touching six feet. Flowing power moves abounded in the early rounds, and as the tide drew in the competitors were whittled down to the last six for a hectic 30-minute final just as the Wedge started to fire.

Newquay ex-pat Remi Geffroy snagged some early cross-wave bombs to take an early lead with a massive air reverse, but was pegged back by Plymouths Bjorn Storey surfing the right hand peak and Danny Wall sitting deep and picking off the lefts on the bigger sets. Newquay native Rob Barber utilised his local knowledge to snag some of the best pure Wedge waves and chuck in his trademark inverts to score well.

Penzances Jack Johns struggled to catch the waves to replicate his dominant semi-final performance and Truros Alex Winkworth  who was an early favourite  just failed to land a couple of outstanding manoeuvres.

In the end it was the all-action style of Geffroy that best mastered the conditions to take the title, with Danny Wall second, Rob Barber third and Bjorn Story fourth. Alex Winkworth was fifth and Jack Johns came in sixth. The event after-party was held at the C-Bar at the Carnmarth Hotel and saw revellers party until the early hours.

The British Bodyboard Club would like to thank headline sponsors Corona, The Kahuna restaurant and Overhead Surf along with sub-sponsors Discipull and Prone Clothing. The ESF would like to thank all the contest organisers, judges etc. for giving their time and effort for free.